Nederlands-Indië contra Japan

Properties2
tagsdocument, colonial, dutch, military, world-war-ii, japanese-occupation, staff-history
aliasesNetherlands East Indies versus Japan, Niederländisch-Indien gegen Japan, Indes Néerlandaises contre le Japon, General Staff Work Spoor, Stafwerk Spoor, Deel VI, Volume VI

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Nederlands-Indië contra Japan is the post-war Dutch general-staff history of the Netherlands Indies Army’s military operations against the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies in 1941–1942, commissioned by the late Lieutenant-General S. H. Spoor and produced by the Krijgsgeschiedkundige Afdeling (Military History Section) of the Generale Staf. Its sixth and final volume — De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra (1959), compiled by Colonels (ret.) C. van den Hoogenband and L. Schotborgh — contains, as its Hoofdstuk V, the most detailed published Dutch account of the Battle of North Sumatra (Atjeh) during the Japanese invasion of March 1942, and is the principal counter-partner to Dr. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan in the Atjeh historiography of the Jappentijd.

Publication and editorial frame

The work appeared in six numbered volumes between 1953 and 1959 from the Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf in ‘s-Gravenhage, under the imprint of the Departement van Defensie / Hoofdkwartier van de Generale Staf. Each volume carries the sub-header “With an English Summary / Avec un extrait français / Mit einem deutschen Resümee,” making the staff history partially accessible to non-Dutch readers. Volume VI — De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra — closes the series. Its compilers acknowledge in the Voorwoord that the original working title “De strijd in de Grote Oost en op Sumatra” was dropped because the Grote Oost also embraced Celebes, whose operations had already been treated in Deel V.

The compilers note that, owing to the destruction of contemporary records in 1942–1945, “the compilers were mainly dependent on reports drawn up from memory in 1945 and subsequent years.” Despite a review by surviving commanders, “it cannot be ruled out that in some details inaccuracies occur.” The cross-checking against the Algemene Indische Chronologie and Marine Chronologie Oost of the Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie was performed by Kapitein ter zee b.d. A. G. Vromans.

Chapter V — De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)

Hoofdstuk V, the Atjeh chapter, runs from page 113 to page 155 of Volume VI and is the volume’s longest single theatre account. It is organised under five numbered sections:

  1. Inleiding (Introduction) — a survey of the military-political development of Atjeh from the Atjeh-oorlog through the Bakongan opstand (1925–1927), the Lhong revolt of 1933, and the pacification’s residual features (including the Atjeh-moord).
  2. Overzicht van de ontwikkeling van de militaire toestand van 1 Januari 1940 tot het uitbreken van de oorlog in December 1941 — the rundown of troop reductions, reorganisation of the Korps Maréchaussee divisions, and the establishment of the 4de Garnizoensbataljon as the „Mobiele Reserve”.
  3. De gebeurtenissen na het uitbreken van de oorlog met Japan in December 1941 tot het uitbreken van de onlusten in Februari 1942.
  4. De opstandige beweging vóór de Japanse landingen — the pre-invasion Atjehnese resistance, including the F. beweging, the murder of controleur J. C. Tiggelman and the Rittermeister Von Sperling.
  5. De operaties tegen de gelande Japanners — the three Dutch hoofdgroepen under Bekkers, Kloprogge and Palmer van den Broek.
  6. Bijzondere verrichtingen na de capitulatie — the post-28 March 1942 resistance of lieutenant H. van Zanten and the safeguarding of the Korps Maréchaussee vaandel by lieutenant L. C. G. F. Onvlee.
  7. Nabeschouwing — a sober retrospective on the inevitability of the defeat.

Throughout Hoofdstuk V the compilers refer the reader, “voor een uitvoerig overzicht op economisch, cultureel en politiek terrein,” to Piekaar’s Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan — a clear subordination of the political-administrative narrative to Piekaar and reservation of the staff history’s own authority for the military account.

Significance

The work is, after Piekaar, the second indispensable Dutch printed source for the Atjeh campaign of 1942. Where Piekaar foregrounds the political, religious and social revolution that overtook the residency under the F-organisatie and Poesa impulse, the staff history foregrounds the operational, tactical and command story — the orders, the deployments, the desertions, the capitulations. The two works are complementary: Piekaar explains why Atjeh rose, while Van den Hoogenband and Schotborgh document how the colonial army was brought down. The staff history is also the principal source for the post-capitulation Dutch resistance of lieutenant H. van Zanten and for the episode of the Maréchaussee vaandel — episodes that lie outside Piekaar’s frame.

See Also

Source

Nederlands-Indië contra Japan, Deel VI: De strijd op Ambon, Timor en Sumatra, bewerkt door de kolonels van het K.N.I.L. b.d. C. van den Hoogenband en L. Schotborgh, werkzaam bij de Krijgsgeschiedkundige Afdeling van de Generale Staf (‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij- en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1959), Voorwoord, Verklaring van gebruikte afkortingen, and Hoofdstuk V (“De strijd in Noord-Sumatra (Atjeh)”), pp. 113–155, with English Summary § 5 (“The Battle in North Sumatra”), pp. 161–162.

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